Agenda and decisions

n/a

No urgent business

in terms of Section 50A(4) of the Local Government (Scotland) Act 1973, to exclude the press and public from the meeting during consideration of item 11.1 so as to avoid disclosure of exempt information of the class described in paragraph 12 of Schedule 7A of the Act.

to note the declarations of interest and transparency statements which would be recorded in the minute.

to note the deputations and thank them for their contributions.

to approve the minute.

to approve the minute.

(i)             to note that Councillor MacGregor voted for Councillor Yuill’s amendment in the second division within Article 2, however due to problems with the electronic voting system his vote had not registered and therefore was not reflected in the minute; and

(ii)           to otherwise approve the minute.

Carried forward from 3 July Council meeting

(i)             to note the unaudited final outturn position for financial year 2023/24 as detailed in Appendix 1;

(ii)           to note that the General Fund had recorded a balanced operational position for the year 2023/24. The uncommitted General Fund reserve remained in line with the approved Reserves Policy;

(iii)          to note that the Housing Revenue Account (HRA) had recorded a deficit of £1.525m for the year, and this would have to be funded from the uncommitted HRA reserve;

(iv)          to note that the Common Good had recorded an operating surplus of £1.814m for the year, which was better than the approved use of cash reserves. After investment valuation changes and capital receipts were included, cash balances increased by £1.614m and remained in line with recommended levels;

(v)           to approve the various transfers for 2023/24, between Council Reserves and Earmarked sums for the General Fund, Housing Revenue Account, Common Good and Statutory Funds as of 31 March 2024, as detailed in Appendix 1;

(vi)          to approve the reprofiling of the 2024/25 - 2027/28 capital programmes to take account of the year end position and that the outcome of this was incorporated into the 2024/25 Quarter 1 reporting;

(vii)        to note that the unaudited Annual Accounts for 2023/24 had been presented to the Audit, Risk and Scrutiny Committee on 9 May 2024, including the Annual Governance Statement and Remuneration Report for the year;

(viii)       note that following the meeting of the Finance and Resources Committee on 4 May 2024, the Convener and Vice Convener wrote to UCAN to make them aware that Aberdeen City Council's External Funding Team would be able to assist with any funding applications; and

(ix)          understand that UCAN had since engaged with the External Funding Team to assist them in securing funding of £2.5m towards a urological Rapid Diagnostic Centre.

Carried forward from 3 July Council meeting

(i)             to note the management assurance on the controls in place for managing the Council’s compliance with the Public Sector Equality Duty; and

(ii)           to note that the Annual Governance Statement, reported to the Audit, Risk and Scrutiny Committee as part of the annual accounts audited by Audit Scotland, would assess the effectiveness of our controls in this area, any residual risk and how we manage it, and that this would be reported to the committee in April.

Carried forward from 3 July Council meeting

(i)             to note the recommendation at section 3.12 of the report to support the development of access to money advice services in Aberdeen; and

(ii)           to note that the Executive Director of Corporate Services had submitted a report to the next Anti-Poverty and Inequality Committee meeting which considered the provision of other advisory services in the city with partners.

(i)             to note the reason for the delay to item 5 (Medium Term Financial Strategy) and that it would be reported to the October Council meeting; and

(ii)           to otherwise note the business planner.

(i)             to note the engagement undertaken over the summer period and thank the community for their participation and contributions to the online engagement and drop-in sessions. In addition, note the planned follow-on engagement with RAAC impacted owners and residents;

(ii)           to agree that the optimum option is the demolition and rebuild of homes on site and instruct the Chief Officer - Capital to proceed with the demolition aspect of this (Option 4a), and report back to the next appropriate meeting of the Communities, Housing and Public Protection Committee  on the initial phasing of demolition and landscape details;

(iii)          to instruct the Chief Officer - Corporate Landlord in consultation with the Chief Officer - Capital,  Chief Officer - Housing, and the Chief Officer - Finance, to assess the ‘building new homes’ option as alluded to in Option 4b with consideration towards  undertaking a detailed masterplanning exercise assuming the site is vacant to determine future redevelopment proposals. For the wider site give consideration to creation of appropriate greenspace, preferred housing mix, opportunities to extend tenure mix and provision for housing for varying need and report this to a future meeting of the Communities, Housing and Public Protection Committee in 2025 (as early as possible);

(iv)          to approve the funding noted within the Financial Implications section of the recommendations and  instruct the Chief Officer - Capital, following consultation with the Convener of the Finance and Resources Committee, and the Chief Officer - Procurement, to procure appropriate works and services, and enter into any contracts necessary for the delivery of the demolition, masterplanning and landscaping works  without the need for further approval from any other Committee of the Council subject to due diligence, consistency with the financial model and affordability and regular update on progress of project delivery to the Communities, Housing and Public Protection Committee;

(v)           to instruct the Chief Officer - Corporate Landlord to look at a range of delivery options for new housing on the site including opportunities to work with partners to meet the masterplan aspirations, and the requirement of the Housing Revenue Accounts 30 year business plan; reporting this in as part (ii) above;

(vi)          to instruct the Chief Officer - Corporate Landlord in consultation with the Chief Officer - Finance to take forward negotiations with private owners to acquire their properties voluntarily at Market Value, noting that this would be a valuation of the property at the current date and be on the same basis as the CPO process. In addition to Market Value the Council would be willing to meet reasonable legal and professional costs along with home loss and disturbance payments;

(vii)        to instruct the Chief Officer - Corporate Landlord in consultation with the Chief Officer - Housing as part of the negotiations with private owners to assess the housing options available for each individual owner to identify any support that can be offered in rehoming;

(viii)       to instruct the Chief Officer - Corporate Landlord in consultation with the Chief Officer - Governance to bring back  ...  view the full decision text for item 9.1

(i)             to note the progress made on the B999/Shielhill Road Junction Improvement project and the updates to the programme milestones; and

(ii)           to make a Compulsory Purchase Order in respect of the land identified in the CPO Map contained in Appendix 2 and instruct the Chief Officer - Governance to implement the statutory procedures following on from the making of the Order and continue to pursue voluntary acquisition in parallel with the compulsory purchase process.

(i)             to approve Appendix C, Committee Terms of Reference, with effect from 26 August 2024, note that a further review would be reported to Council in February 2025 following consideration of committee structures by the Governance Reference Group, and instruct the Interim Chief Officer - Governance to schedule a series of meetings from September for the Group to undertake this review;

(ii)           to approve Appendix D, Powers Delegated to Officers, with immediate effect, with the exception of the changes to Appendix 2 (Scheme of Delegation for dealing with Planning Applications for Local Developments) and the changes to the delegated powers of the Chief Officer - Strategic Place Planning, which two categories of changes the Council agree shall come into effect immediately upon the changes to Appendix 2 being approved by the Scottish Ministers;and delegate authority to the Interim Chief Officer - Governance to make any further changes to Appendix 1 (Proper Officers and Statutory Appointees)which were necessary to reflect such approvals, subject to the following amendment:-

·       the proposed Chief Officer - Governance power in Appendix B and Appendix D (Powers Delegated to Officers) be replaced with the following amended power (the scored-out wording showing the extent of the amendment):

To make corrections or minor amendments to a trust deed or to amend it as required by law or as required or recommended by the Office of the Scottish Charity Regulator (OSCR), following consultation with the Chief Officer – Finance and any officer who is the lead Council officer in respect of the trust in question, but only where the trust deed relates to a trust in respect of which the Council is sole trustee or the only trustees are elected members of the Council.

with that scored-out wording also deleted where it elsewhere occurs in the Powers Delegated to Officers and the Committee Terms of Reference;

(iii)          to approve the revisions to the Standing Orders for Council, Committee and Sub-Committee Meetings as set out in Appendix B, with effect from 26 August 2024, subject to the following additions:-

·       in relation to Standing Order 16.1, insert the following additional wording as shown in italics; “Subject to Standing Orders 12.14, 16.2 and 16.3 any Member will be entitled to attend any Committee or Sub Committee meeting of which they are not a member and will be entitled to ask questions and address the meeting for a maximum of 5 minutes”.

·       in relation to Standing Order 34.1, insert the following additional wording as shown in italics; “Immediately following a vote at Committee or Sub Committee, at least one third of the membership of the Committee or Sub Committee may refer the matter to the Council, a Committee or Sub Committee for a decision (see Glossary for calculation), provided that they state a reason for referral; but subject always to the right of the Convener of the Committee or Sub Committee first mentioned to determine that the matter may not be so referred”.

(iv)          to approve the revisions  ...  view the full decision text for item 9.3

to refer the report to the Finance and Resources Committee.

Carried forward from 3 July Council meeting

to refer the report to the Finance and Resources Committee.

to approve the revised Performance Management Framework for 2024-25 as detailed in Appendix A.

Carried forward from 3 July Council meeting

To be considered at a later date

To instruct the Executive Director of Families and Communities to investigate, with urgency, the opportunity for post offices that are closing to be set up in our local libraries and to report back to the Communities, Housing and Public Protection Committee as soon as possible.  With the closure of both Culter and Cults post offices recently, this leaves a huge number of people without a post office facility. 

to approve the notice of motion.

See decision at item 9.1